Should I Become a Spiritual Director?

How do I know if I’m a good fit for spiritual guidance work?

Spiritual direction is an art and a craft: that is, part of it you are born with, and part you can learn. Spiritual directors have the unique skills of:

• deep listening

• an active intuition

• a love of spirituality

• deep care and compassion, and

• a strong desire to companion others on their spiritual journeys.

Here are some more clues that spiritual guidance work may be a good fit for you:

• You have experienced spiritual direction and love the process

• You are sought out for advice by friends and co-workers

• You love to learn and to help others learn

• You have a job now in which you provide spiritual guidance, and you want to be more effective at it: This could include clergy, religious educators, chaplains, therapists, social workers, energy and healing therapists, and some health care workers.

And, spiritual directors need an elusive “something more.” Many people have gone through spiritual direction training only to find, when they get to the end of the process, that it isn’t for them. The “something more’ is this sense that “I really have to do this training.” It’s as if there is an inner compulsion or calling that “this is work that I am on this planet to do.”

This deep conviction is what helps us drive through the doubt, challenges, uncertainties, and incompetencies that arise as we journey to be a spiritual director. Everyone I know who is a spiritual director has contended with the “imposter syndrome,” that sense that if others really knew who I was and what I know they would never work with me. It takes a deep conviction to keep on keeping on in the midst of these challenges.

If you do have this deep desire for training, and see it through, it will lead you to some of the most fulfilling work on the planet!

Next steps: